Film Continuity

Film Continuity:

Continuity, by definition, is “the maintenance of continuous action and self-consistent detail in the various scenes of a film or broadcast”, and in film photography, we keep this self-consistent detail though means of theories and methods that films use over and over again, some of the more popular ones are 180 degree rule, match on action, and Shot-reverse shot.

180 Degree Rule:

The 180 degree rule in film photography usually happens when one actor talks to another actor in the film. To follow Continuity, the theory is that when the audiences watch the actors talk, their eyes follow a pattern between the 2 actors: here, we see that actor 1 is always to the left hand side of the camera when the film is playing, and Actor 2 on the right. This tells the audience that when the camera edits to the next actor, their eyes switch to look at the opposite side of the film, associating that side of the shot with that/those specific actor(s). The continuity breaks hard when the angle of the camera switches sides of the 180 axis that pass between the 2 actors. This is considered “Crossing the line”, and it doesn’t look, or even feel, right when the audience watches the scene. The rule is simple; angle the camera in any direction you want, just don’t let it pass the 180 axis that pass through the 2 actors, like an invisible wall.

Match on Action:

Within film photography, “Match on Action” is when an action starting from the first cut swiftly translates into the second cut and continues it forward. This can be described as someone running out of the shot of the camera, which then moves to the second cut as the camera films the actor running in front of it, running in the same direction the camera was facing. This method is mostly used to avoid panning where the camera cannot pan to, such as the camera facing the same corner of a building but on different sides of the building.  However, when using Match on Action, it’s important to know when you’re going to edit and which positions the actor is in: this can destroy continuity to, for example, end with the left leg in the end of the first cut and then start with the right in the second cut.

Shot-Reverse Shot:

The Shot-Reverse Shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects. A shot showing what the character is supposedly looking at (either a point of view or over the shoulder shot) is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or of the other character looking back at them, for example. This is often mistaken for the 180 degree rule, the difference is that the way the camera switches between characters are at a fixed angle, so it doesn’t vary as much as the 180 degree rule.